WGC, China Gold Association to Merge Gold Market Knowledge

Mineweb reported that the World Gold Council (WGC) and China Gold Association have signed a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Agreement aimed at increasing global understanding of the gold market and supply chain.

More specifically, it will focus on illuminating “China’s role within [the industry] through the exchange of research, data insights and developing innovations for gold in investment, technology and jewellery.”

As quoted in the market news:

One hopes that this may give WGC researchers perhaps a better understanding of the Chinese gold supply and demand situation than seems to be the case at present where known import figures, stated gold demand figures and published data out of the Shanghai Gold Exchange seem to suggest a wide disparity in apparent demand in particular. However given the China Gold Association’s ties with the Chinese government, as will have any Chinese trade organisation, which may have an agenda to only let Western organisations, like the WGC, know what it wants them to know, then the co-operation agreement might not actually provide a great deal of new information on these disparities, although any such regular contact should be helpful.

It is also highly unlikely to throw any new light on whether the Chinese Central Bank is surreptitiously increasing its gold reserves without reporting them to the IMF – as many Western analysts believe – or not. We will almost certainly have to wait until the Chinese government deems it politic to announce any reserve upgrade, if any, before we know for sure.

Click here to read the full Mineweb report.